The Cuba Archive project has documented almost 10,000 victims of Castro between 1952 and today, including 5,600 men, women, and children who died in front of firing squads and another 1,200 in “extrajudicial assassinations.” Thousands more Cubans also died trying to flee his repressive regime.

As a first-generation Cuban American and a Christian, my response to the death of Fidel Castro has come in the form of a question: How do I respond to the death of a man whom I was taught to hate for so long?

Religion played a significant role in the election, from the activity of dozens of national religious leaders, to the importance of various faith-related issues, to the high level of turnout among key segments of faith-driven voters. This is the first of several summaries based on Barna Group’s election survey concerning the role that faith played in this historic political contest.

Cosmopolitan and Buzzfeed recently discovered that the church HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines attend, Antioch Community Church, is led by a pastor who does not support same-sex marriage and who believes that homosexual practice is a sin. In other words, Chip and Joanna Gaines attend a historically Christian congregation on the matter of sexual ethics. What is newsworthy is the religious undertone of the Cosmopolitan article. It reads like a heresy hunt.

To some Christians, America’s increasingly postmodern, pluralistic culture presents a threat to our national religious identity. Mike Cosper thinks differently. As the founder and director of the Harbor Institute for Faith and Culture, Cosper says he’s called to help equip Christians to live faithfully in a post-Christian world—which in part means embracing opportunities to share God’s truth not only through proposition-driven sermons, but also through storytelling, art, and service to the common good.

Education levels may be a proxy for cultural hegemony. Academia, the news media and the arts and entertainment sectors are increasingly dominated by people with a liberal, multicultural worldview, and jobs in these sectors also almost always require college degrees. Trump’s campaign may have represented a backlash against these cultural elites.

Abortion is legal in most of Europe, but its proponents are bent on suppressing efforts to change the minds of mothers considering it. Witness France’s ban on a television commercial showing happy children with Down Syndrome.

When we understand that the best way to bless is to be here to bless long term, these issues are not “our needs vs. their needs” issues. Instead, if our ability to continue to be here means continuing to bless, even as we sustain ourselves as ministries, organizations and ministers, we are doing so for the sake of others.

The “gospel of self-fulfillment,” also described as “expressive individualism,” is one of the dominant narratives of our time. It shows up in movies and music, and increasingly, on the platforms of popular preachers and teachers—both male and female. According to this way of thinking, the goal of life is to discover and express your unique sense of self, no matter what others may say or do to challenge your freedom of personality.

What qualifies as “fake news” to one person, might just be another’s holiest scripture. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is coming under fire from religious groups who fear their news of miracles and revelations will be labeled “fictional” as the social media site cracks down on fake news. Take these headlines from news outlets that cover religious news, including RNS, and try to “prove” they actually “happened” in secular terms: